This readme file was generated on 08-22-2025 by Meredith Dost for purposes of transparency and replication of the analyses in "Administrative Burden's Mass Political Effects: How the Administration of Medicaid and Elections Shapes Mass Voter Turnout" (2025). Perspectives on Politics. Please send any questions to mdost.phd@gmail.com.

# FILE OVERVIEW
All analyses were conducted using R. At the beginning of each .R code file, there is information on the purpose of the code and link(s) to data sources utilized, when applicable.

## File List:
* DOST_README.md (this file)

R Code files:
* final_dataset_creation_replication.R
* regression_models.R
* regression_output.R (Tables 2-3, A1-A10)
* figures_creation.R (Figures 2-6, A1)

Combined dataset for analysis:
* final_dataset_for_analysis_replication.csv

Folders that contain data & code that cleans it:
* burden_data (folder)
** electburden_measures.csv
** medburden_measures.csv
** elections (subfolder)
*** electoral_burden_creation.R
*** COVI Values 1996-2024 website.xlsx
*** covi_subset.csv
*** votingburden_dataset_wcodebook.xlsx
*** votingburden_dataset.csv
** kff (subfolder)
*** kff_cleaning_to_medburden.R
*** kff_2016.csv
*** kff_2018.csv
*** kff_2020.csv
*** MGI_All.dta

* demographic_data (folder)
** cleaning_ACS_data.R
** acs_county_data.csv
** cleaning_sahie_data.R
** sahie_county_data.csv
** input_data (subfolder)
*** sahie_2009_modified_colnames.csv
*** sahie_2011_modified_colnames.csv
*** sahie_2013_modified_colnames.csv
*** sahie_2015_modified_colnames.csv
*** sahie_2017_modified_colnames.csv
*** sahie_2019_modified_colnames.csv
*** original SAHIE files from Census (sub-subfolder)
**** sahie_2009.csv
**** sahie_2011.csv
**** sahie_2013.csv
**** sahie_2015.csv
**** sahie_2017.csv
**** sahie_2019.csv
*** CVAP_2006-2010_ACS_csv_files (sub-subfolder)
**** CVAP_06to10_Documentation.pdf
**** County.csv
*** CVAP_2008-2012_ACS_csv_files (sub-subfolder)
**** CVAP_08to12_Documentation.pdf
**** County.csv
*** CVAP_2010-2012_ACS_csv_files (sub-subfolder)
**** CVAP_10to12_Documentation.pdf
**** County.csv
*** CVAP_2012-2016_ACS_csv_files (sub-subfolder)
**** CVAP_12to16_Documentation.pdf
**** County.csv

* voting_data
** cleaning_leip_data.R
** cleaning_voteshare_data.R
** demvoteshare_by_county.csv
** input_data (subfolder)
*** countypres_2000-2020.csv

* other_data
** border_distance.csv
** border_distance (subfolder)
*** cleaning_border_distance_data.R
*** cntydist_holmes.csv
*** mcenreis.csv
** cces_burden_final.csv
** cces2016 (subfolder)
*** cleaning_cces_merging_burden_vars.R
*** CCES Guide 2016.pdf
*** CCES16_Common_OUTPUT_Feb2018_VV.dta
** Medicaid_expansion_status.csv
** state_ctyfips_xwalk.csv
** state_stateabbr.csv
** states_gub_sen_elections_10_14_18.csv

## Instructions for Replication:
To replicate regressions in the article and appendix, run regression_models.R, which reads in final_dataset_for_analysis_replication.csv. Note that you will need to have obtained the proprietary Leip datasets with county-level turnout, otherwise your dataset will be missing the dependent variable ("turn"). If you are unable to obtain the Leip datasets from your institution's online library, please contact the author at mdost.phd@gmail.com.

To reproduce the .tex files that underly tables in the article and appendix, run regression_output.R after already having run regression_models.R.

To reproduce the figures in the article and appendix that were created in R, run figures_creation.R, which uses the final combined dataset in addition to other datasets included in the replication files.

To reproduce the combined dataset, follow these steps, in order:
1. Create the burden datasets (.csv files) contained in burden_data folder
1a. In burden_data>elections, run electoral_burden_creation.R
1b. In burden_data>kff, run kff_cleaning_to_medburden.R
2. Create the demographic datasets (.csv files) contained in demographic_data folder
2a. In demographic_data, run cleaning_ACS_data.R
2b. In demographic_data, run cleaning_sahie_data.R
3. Create the voter turnout (Leip) and Democratic vote share datasets (.csv files) in voting_data
3a. After obtaining the datasets that are input in cleaning_leip_data.R (from https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/XX3YJ4), run cleaning_leip_data.R (in voting_data folder)
3b. In voting_data, run cleaning_voteshare_data.R
4. To create border_distance.csv in other_data, run cleaning_border_distance_data.R (in border_distance subfolder)
5. To create cces_burden_final.csv in other_data, run cleaning_cces_merging_burden_vars.R (in cces2016 subfolder)
* other_data
6. Run final_dataset_creation_replication.R, which will output final_dataset_for_analysis_replication.csv